The National Affairs Desk of Glorious Noise

I like the New York Times editorial pages. Good editorials, and good writers. I look forward to reading Frank Rich every week on Sunday, in particular. He is an insightful critic of the Bush administration. And he knows his facts. His pieces are a constant reminder of how corrupt and ineffective the current administration is. This week, he covers some of the damage it has done to the country. And, as Rich describes it, it runs through the entire administration. From Earth to G.O.P.: The Gipper Is Dead:

By my rough, conservative calculation — feel free to add — there have been corruption, incompetence, and contracting or cronyism scandals in these cabinet departments: Defense, Education, Justice, Interior, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development. I am not counting State, whose deputy secretary, a champion of abstinence-based international AIDS funding, resigned last month in a prostitution scandal, or the General Services Administration, now being investigated for possibly steering federal favors to Republican Congressional candidates in 2006. Or the Office of Management and Budget, whose chief procurement officer was sentenced to prison in the Abramoff fallout. I will, however, toss in a figure that reveals the sheer depth of the overall malfeasance: no fewer than four inspectors general, the official watchdogs charged with investigating improprieties in each department, are themselves under investigation simultaneously — an all-time record.